Now how in the world did I end up moving thousands of miles
away after I graduated to be a servant in a foreign country with a different
culture, when I really have no international experience, besides a week in
Mexico and a lunch in Canada (that’s right, a single meal in Canada)?
My journey to my current point in life as a recent college
graduate (Huzzah!) preparing for a year of service through the YAGM started
about eight years ago as a new member of the La Crosse Area Synod’s Lutheran
Youth Organization (LYO). I was at the
monthly LYO meeting and Pastor Lanny, the Assistant to the Bishop and
our advisor, had invited a YAGM alumnus named Anna to come and speak to us
about her recent experience as a YAGM volunteer in Slovakia, which was a program
site in 2006. I remember thinking, “That
sounds like fun, but I don’t think that’s the right path for me,” and that was
as far as I thought I would go in the YAGM program, hearing about it but not
being interested in it.
Now I have noticed that when God wants me to do something, I
tend not to listen because I am my own person, and I do not want to make what
can seem like a drastic move, such as moving abroad for a year to serve God’s
global community or simply joining a campus ministry as my college (now alma
mater!). God then proceeds to take a
page out of my mom’s book (or does she take a page from God’s book?), and God
keeps pushing opportunities into my life until I finally relent and decide to
go where God is leading me. I found this
to be true with many large events in my life: joining my campus ministry,
becoming more involved with my church and synod, participating in Serving
Christ in the World (SCITW) through the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago,
and, most recently, applying and accepting a position as a YAGM volunteer.
Throughout my high school education, God would every once in
a while push me into the path of the YAGM program. A former Sugar Creek Bible Camp counselor
served in Mexico during my junior year.
The year later, during my experience in SCITW, I actually met a current
YAGM volunteer in Mexico, as well as the country coordinator, Pastor Heidi. Through both of these
opportunities I was able to speak with members of the program and learn aspects
of the program I never knew. Later I
would find out that my pastor’s daughter had served in Argentina. Yet every time I met someone who was
connected to YAGM, my thoughts were the same, “That’s neat, but it’s not for
me.”
Then in college, God became truly serious about me applying
for YAGM after my graduation because God was done playing games. First, Pastor Heidi became the director of
YAGM and started sending me updates on that year’s volunteers and their
adventures during their service. Then God sent YAGM recruiters every year to
the Lutheran Campus Ministry, where I was an active student; when I had
mentioned to my pastor my familiarity with the program, she made sure that I
would be there during the discussion with the recruiter. After the first recruiter came my freshman
year, I started to play with the idea of applying for the program after
graduation, and I discussed this with my pastor, who proceeded to make sure
that every recruiter who came to the campus ministry knew who I was, so they
could check in on me and where I was with deciding to volunteer or not. Through these people, God made sure that I
never had YAGM far from my mind whenever I thought about life after college.
Through all these encounters with the YAGM program, I
decided to listen and applied to the YAGM program, which, again, God made sure
I did not forget to do through the forms of my pastor and my mother
consistently checking up on my progress with the application and its due date. I have to say that I was a bit reluctant when
God first tapped me on the shoulder to apply to this program, but once I realized
that these encounters were not actually chance, but God saying “Hey, listen
up!”, the process went very quick, and in less than three months I will be
arriving at orientation to begin a journey that started eight years ago in a
small synod office with an uninterested high school freshman.
Please follow my blog and share it with anyone who may be
interested because my journey to this point certainly was not without my
community, and it should not continue without you being a part of it. Especially share it with any youth you may
know; I definitely would not be preparing for my year of service if I had not
met and heard the stories of past volunteers, as well as eight years to finally
consider the program and become serious about answering God’s call.
Peace,
Elise
2014-2015 volunteer in the United Kingdom
Young Adults in Global Mission
